Imaging apparatuses that form images on sheet media are known in the art. Some types of such apparatus employ imaging engines (or devices) that apply a liquid composition (generally referred to as ink, but not necessarily India ink or toner) to sheet media under the influence of an electronic controller. Non-limiting examples of such imaging engines include printing presses. Other similar types of imaging engine are known.
Some such apparatus include two independent imaging engines, each configured to produce images on respective sides of sheet of media, thereby producing a two-sided document (i.e., a document whose individual sheets of media bear images on both sides). One way that this can be performed is to image a first side of sheet of media using one imaging engine, and then pass that sheet of media onto another imaging engine, which forms images on the second side. Thus, a first imaging engine is used to image a first media side, and a second imaging engine is used to image a second side of the same media.
During such a process, the act of imaging the first side of the media tends to affect a lengthwise dimension of the sheet of media, prior to imaging the second side, resulting in undesirable registration (i.e., front-to-back alignment) of the first imaged side with the second image side. Furthermore, the magnitude of such undesirable registration (or error) can vary with different types of sheet media, changes in the composition of the applied liquid, etc.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method which addresses these and other undesirable registration problems as described above.